This invention is in the field of toy balloons, inflatables, and plastic spheres and more particularly the area of using these objects for decorating, and artistic sculpture.
Although this segment of the toy balloon industry has grown enormously, problems confronting the balloon decorators, and sculpturers have not been addressed by research and development.
In spite of the limited state of the art, innovative balloon decorators and sculpturers have shown remarkable skill and artistic talent to achieve their goals. They build intricate wire and wood frames, using them as formers, in some cases master strings or cords are used to set the basic pattern for the sculptures or designs. Tying hundreds, sometimes thousands of different sizes of inflated multi-colored balloons to these formers and guides to fill them out, is tedious labor consuming work.
The cost of this labor is probably the major consideration, when a client is contracting for one of these creations or decorating jobs. At special events and trade shows, set up time is a major factor; consequently the time consumed plus the labor cost become a two edged sword working against the balloon decorator and sculpturer. Excluding the new Mylar or foil balloons, the image of a child walking down the street carrying one rubber helium balloon floating on a string, still dominates the latex balloon segment of the industry.
Balloons being connected together in tandem, in groups, or special patterns, seems to have limited disclosure in the art.
T. W. Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 1,220,874 discloses a toy balloon with a valve at its shank or base, a restricting connecting means secured inside of the balloon at its top, this restricting means of a predetermined length then being connected to a valve at the balloon's base. The balloon's inflation opening is then made air-tight around the provided inflation valve. This patent is primarily to restrict the expansion of the balloon at certain points or multiple points and alter its intended round shape. The strength of Miller's restricting means, his valve and his methods of attachment, would be determined to cause the restriction of the balloon only. Conditions such as wind, balloons that will be anchored, heavy pressure on the valve, its restricting means and points of attachment are not considered in Miller's patent. Miller does not make any provisions for his balloons to be connected together in groups or in tandem.
J. Jacobs U.S. Pat. No. 2,008,552 discloses a method to attach toy balloons together, utilizing a mechanical connection which is detectable at will. He supplies a pair of independent shank members which are attached adjacent to each other at points, over the stretched skin of the balloon. This method as stated allows the connectors to be unhooked quite easily from the outside of the inflated balloon. This would severely limit the amount of balloons that could be attached together in tandem. Balloons connected together in this manner for decorating would create problems of how to hang them, drape them or anchor them to a solid object. The pressures on the connections and the skin of the inflated balloons would cause broken connections and mishaped balloons. This would severely limit their versatility.
Using large amounts of balloons, Jacob's method would be very time consuming, limited and not economical.
My own patent, Cornelius J. Wallace U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,513, discloses a method to shape balloons into different configurations, such as an apple, orange, pumpkin etc. In this patent no connectors, loops or eyes are provided at the base valve or at its top to allow balloons to be connected together in groups or in tandem. The interior pliable guide means is primarily provided to restrict the expansion of the inflated balloon at a designated point. The adapter disc is provided to make the indentation at the top of the inflated balloon more pronounced and to prevent the inflation valve from being unnecessarily pulled into the base of the inflated balloon.
The predetermined strength of the inflation valve, the guide means, the adapter disc, the top anchor means and the method of attachment thereof are only relative to causing and controlling this indentation.
Other methods of attaching balloons together used by balloon sculpturers is referred to as a "helix" wherein the balloons are inflated, hand tied, closed and strung 5 or 6 together on an office paper clip, then attached to a guide wire or string. This method is used to form multi-colored arches or what is referred to as a "spiral weave". Most methods used by balloon sculpturers and decorators involve the "helix" or hand tying individual balloons to frames or guide wires. This requires time consuming work.
Balloon twisting is also used to connect balloons together, it is pretty limited to forming small figures of birds, people and animals. The innovator is limited to making right angle connections along a pencil shaped balloon. These connections are always at risk of becoming untwisted.
There is another method of forming balloons together in a line, that is by using a long cylindrical shaped, tunnel like mesh net. Inflated balloons are fed into the net by hand and worked along its length to a starting point. A single line of 20-30 inflated 12" diameter balloons in a mesh net would cover a length of approximately 20'-30'. Nets can be joined together to form designs and arches. The use of the Mylar or silver foil balloons for decorating is very limited and only used as an alternative to the more popular latex or rubber balloons.
All in all, many beautiful decorative effects are achieved by putting balloons in nets tying hundreds of balloons to a master cord or frame, and grouping balloons in clusters such as a "helix". All of these standard methods are labor intensive, tedious and rely primarily on the use of expensive helium gas. The problem of replacing balloons that have become deflated exists. To form a string of single alternating size balloons in tandem is impossible. Spelling a simple word or making a simple figure encompasses the use of wire frames, guide cords or wooden supports. Most of the large decorating jobs are for trade shows, fundraisers, street fairs or special events. They are already on tight set-up schedules themselves. The balloon decorator and sculpturer would welcome any time saving, economical innovation that comes his way.